Canadian Railroads > Taschereau Yard Hump Infrastructure

As I mentioned in my MLW Monday post this week, in June 1975 I was able to spend a day in CN's Taschereau Yard (Montreal) photographing the operation. These pictures are of the main hump yard infrastructure. CN built this yard in 1961, and the hump remained in service until approximately 1998.

The whole Taschereau complex is two miles long, aligned north-south. The receiving yard is on the east side of the complex, while the hump and its classification yards were more on the west side.

Picture #1 shows the end of the loop at the north end of the complex where the tracks leading to the hump have gained elevation. The road and track under the bridge go to a smaller yard to the west of the main classification bowl.

Picture #2 shows the crest of the hump at Tower "C". The carmen are uncoupling the cars as they are released down the hill. There were two hump tracks plus two auxiliary tracks for the hump locomotives. This yard was able to classify 1700 cars per day.

Picture #3 shows a general view down into the bowl. One of the S-13/HBU/S-13 hump locomotives is passing on the auxiliary track. You can see its truck adaptation for use through the retarders.

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Picture #4 shows a car on the scales. The car weight was one of the parameters used to control the retarder force.

Picture #5 shows the primary retarder on the west classification track. The main yard tower, Tower "A", is in the background.

Picture #6 is a closer view of this retarder (with the primary retarder on the east classification track in the background).

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Picture #7 shows the group of secondary retarders for the west half of the bowl. Note that a cut of 7 cars has been humped as a unit here.

Picture #8 is a view of one of the primary retarders from below, showing just how much of a hill is involved.

Picture #9 is a closer view of Tower "A".

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Picture #10 shows one of the hump power sets moving into the bowl, and Picture #11 is a final view of the secondary retarders, Tower "A" and the hump from down at the yard level.

It's all gone now, replaced by a boring flat switching yard.

Ray

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What a fascinating post . . . I knew a bit about retarders and hump yards but hadn't seen it described in detail as in your post with the accompanying photos . . . much appreciated!

Craig
http://mcmrailvideos.com/

Yes.....what a nice set of photographs that show a lot of history. The only way they could have been any better is if they were in color.

Thanks for showing these. I spent 38 years on the CN of Michigan, GTW. Until the DT&I came along we didn't have any hump yards to observe the operations.

There had been plans for a couple but those never materialized.

Ron

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
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> It's all gone now, replaced by a boring flat
> switching yard.
>
> Ray

Thanks for posting. Yes, sadly it all gone now but I did get a quick tour of the yard a couple of years ago courtesy of VIA.

(For years this was freight only trackage but in the ‘90s VIA started routing its Jonquiere and Senneterre trains through Taschereau.....‘round the mountain and not through it anymore via the Mt Royal Tunnel)

CP's Cote St.Luc class yard and hump, diesel shop and roundhouse was built in the early 1950's adjacent to CN's Montreal (Taschereau) yard which was built in the early 1960's.

They were built on a vast plot of land west of the city of Montreal which had been an airforce base. Today's YUL (Pierre Trudeau International airport) started as a military air force base.

At the same time, much of the modern suburbs of Lachine, Dorval and Pointe Claire were developed.

CP's older class yard, Sortin and CN's huge Turcot yard were downgraded at that time, as was the CN express terminal , Bonaventure in downtown Montreal.

CN offered guided tours of Montreal yard when it opened. The CN literature I collected as an 11 year old stayed with me through several moves.